


They, We, & I

by pyalgroundblz (acidtonguejenny)



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, Marriage, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-12 07:46:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2101416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidtonguejenny/pseuds/pyalgroundblz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I met Derkeethus little more than a year into our marriage. A fellow adventurer, my wife assured me. A companion on the road, and friend only.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Usually I try to make my Skyrim stories easy to customize, but this one isn't going to work so well unless you've got an Altmer dragonborn with lizard husbands (in which case omg same??). Sorry guys D:
> 
> Also this story uses the same characters from my other fic [Ah, Home](http://archiveofourown.org/works/436669), but with some differences :d One doesn't need to be read to understand the other. (In fact, the opposite might be true.)

_“When jealousy rears up, it indicates that something inside of you is afraid.”_ ― Anthony D. Ravenscroft 

 

 

Little more than a year into our marriage, I met Derkeethus. 

A fellow adventurer, my new wife assured me. A companion to travel with on the roads, and friend only. 

My first thought was one of approval. Good, I said to myself. Amida was wise and strong; a properly wary traveler, I believed wholeheartedly. But she was also a beautiful woman of a race little loved by most of Skyrim, and seemed to find herself in unenviable positions with startling frequency, if her tales were to be taken for truth. And I did believe them so. The loot she took great joy in inventorying, spread out like a rug in our main room, was proof enough for any. 

Derkeethus slept in our spare room for two nights, as Amida poured over maps, bounties, and notices, plotting her circuit around the country and back to me. 

In our bed, that first night, I felt the childish urge to ask if he liked me. Amida had nestled close against my front, curled up with my softer belly scales against her cheek. 

“Is he comfortable?” I heard myself say instead, a compromise, in a hoarse whisper. 

She wiggled. One golden arm drew around my middle. “I imagine so. Made of stone, our Derkeethus.” She yawned, tired, but sounding happily content. 

“Good.” I said lamely, and made an effort to sleep.

The next day, Amida said “I think I want to move.” It was a thought ventured into the void, and not wholly directed at me. 

Gray Windhelm light stole through our thick windows. The kitchen, where we were gathered, was lit by the high-burning cooking hearth.

Derkeethus sat by the fire, running a whetstone along his blade. It was Amida’s chair, usually pressed nearly up against the grate. He’d moved it to a more sensible distance, close enough to feel the warmth, but not so close that his scales might dry out. His only concession to the respite of our home seemed to be the lack of his steel pauldrons, though I thought his tail might be a little more relaxed. He had not known to expect me, anymore than I he. 

He did not look up at this announcement. Unconcerned? Or unsurprised? Why was I suspicious of him?

“Move?” I said, nearly dropping the bowl in my hands. A few rubies spilled to the floor.

“I have a house in Riften.” Amida continued in the same distracted tone. She set aside her compass and looked to me. “It’s much warmer there.”

“Riften,” I repeated, blinking. I’ve traveled further distances, though I was small and barely remember. 

“If you’re not terribly opposed. There’s work at the docks if you wanted it, though we bring in enough.”

I, I realized, was not included in her ‘we’.

There was a ringing sound as Derkeethus dragged the stone down one edge in a long stroke. I blinked reproachfully in his general direction, but not at him. I’d hardly spoken to him. Met his eyes only scant few times. What handful of interactions we’d had had been through my wife. His companion. It was an odd distance.

I turned my mind to Amida’s proposal. I had friends I would be sorely sad to part with, and life was familiar here. Though as I thought, I counted fewer things anchoring me to this sullen, frigid city than I would’ve guessed.

“I might not be. Let me think on it.” I said at length.

Amida flashed me a small smile, not lacking warmth for its size. I touched my nose to her chin, and she pressed a lingering kiss on the thinner scales near my eye, so I made a soft, pleased noise.

Another stroke of whetstone. I darted a perturbed glance at Derkeethus’s seat, and forgot to look away upon meeting his eyes.

I had heard humans and elves complain of my kind’s infrequent blinking. I felt what I thought must be a fission of unease similar to what a human might, faced with his stare. I broke the trance, looking back to Amida. Her large, wheat gold eyes gleamed.

“You’ll like it in Riften, I know it. There’s a place outside town where honeybees are raised. I’ve used their honey before to make a oil for you. I can bring it to you every day if you like.”

Amida chattered excitedly to me, detailing the city, the people, its politics, etcetera. I collected the fallen rubies and shelved the bowl next to a line of others containing emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires. Derkeethus returned his sword. 

I did not look his way again.

That night, as I waited impatiently for Amida to come to bed, I had a small epiphany. The low level stress I had felt since Amida stood to the side of the doorway, revealing her companion—

I stopped my twitching, digesting. Could she? Would she? — _was_ she?

My belly tightened. I did not know.

Our courtship was a brief one, all told. Amida was present in small, rare bursts of color over the course of a number of months. Few times she only waved her fingers my way in passing. I had nurtured a liking for her that I fancied I saw reflected in her soft looks for much of that period, and when I saw the Amulet, glittering so innocuously through the laces of her tunic…

The question had left me without my meaning it to. And she said yes. 

And she was mine.

She had made few concessions to her adventuring schedule for marriage. After a period of short weeks, she took off for the countryside with a fast kiss and a twinkling eye. I missed her when she was gone, but felt I was a generous husband. I did not begrudge her her occupation. I savored her when she was by my side, and thought of her fondly when she was away. I was not bitter. I was not jealous.

I knew her domestic habits. The way she gave her garments a single, good shake before donning them. The odd, three fingered pinch she held her utensils with. Her utter lack of anything resembling order when it came to her personal library.

I knew her expressions. Utter bafflement on those rare occasions when something around the house was outside even her Altmer reach. Sighing bliss upon sinking into a bathing tub of steaming water. The small, curling smile that drew up her mouth in the mornings when I touched her hair. 

I did not know her history. She spoke of Helgen briefly, but nothing before. She talked at length of her adventures, but shortly of her efforts for the Imperials. I knew her favorite books, her favorite gemstones, magpie that she was, but not her manner of combat.

Her morals. She despised the blatant racism that permeated Windhelm like a poisonous, ankle high smog. She spoke out passionately against Ulric’s rule. She was a thief. I remember the night I had learned this, realizing with a jolt that the emblem she polished as we conversed had been around Hillevi Cruel-Sea’s neck the preceding day.

If she thieved without remorse, as I might only assume, what then did she think of adultery?

I listened to her putter with last minute things downstairs, and the creaking of Derkeethus turning in the spare bed, my tail stiff with helpless fright for the happiness I’ve known these past months.

It suddenly seemed so very fragile.

***

Amida left me the next morning. I kept her in bed as long as I could, drinking in the sensation of her bare flesh against me, yielding breasts pressed to my chest, long legs laced with my own. I ran my hand down the length of her spine, and returned it to her nape to do it again. She had breathed against me the night before, loosing yelping, bitten off cries into my throat as I moved in her. She complained teasingly that she would be too tired to depart in the morning. I dared not hope.

She rolled to her feet with a long, happy groan that would not have sounded out of place in our lovemaking. 

“Don’t get up, love.” She told me, leaning to kiss my face. 

I obliged, inclined as I was to watch her move about our room in naught but her skin. She took slow, slinking steps at first, still warm from our bed, loose from our couplings. Her hips moved like the sway of a ship on roiling seas, her bottom full and round, leading up to a small waist. Her breasts were only approaching modest according to my understanding, but they pleased me. Her hair hung heavy and thick, reaching down her back, and longer than I recalled it to be. Her legs were solid and strong, her feet firmly planted, giving the idea that only her own will, above Jarl, Emperor and Dragon, would move her. 

She gave her tunic the expected shake before drawing it over her head. I felt a pang at the loss of the sight of her curves, and felt as if her place in the bed had already gone cold.

She seemed to sense my mood. Lifting her mane of hair free of the collar, she turned to me with doting eyes.

“Don’t fret. I’ve only planned a small roundabout.” She looked as if she wanted to approach me, but seemed to decide against it, picking up the next article to be donned. “I’ll be safe. I’ll be quick.”

I nodded my acknowledgement. 

I dressed minimally, intended to see her off and return directly to bed. She goosed me in passing with a wink, making for her pack by the doorway. As she ascertained everything required was present, Derkeethus descended the stairs, he too in full armor. A bow adorned his back, and the hilt of his sword protruded from his back, visible over his shoulder.

I restrained the urge to scowl at the blade. It was not to blame for my doubts.

Amida shouldered her pack and took my hands. Behind her, Derkeethus took a post by the door, politely hiding his impatience. I ignored him. 

Amida squeezed my hands, looking into my eyes. 

“You have my maps, my notes. You can follow our route as we go. A month, my love. I’ll return.” She kissed me once, and then twice more for good measure. I scrubbed my nose lightly against her chin. 

“I’m holding you to that.” I said, forcing levity into my voice. 

One last kiss. She dropped my hands, and smiled at me before going through the door Derkeethus held open. He looked at me, only perhaps the fourth time we had mutually done so, and nodded once, shortly. 

I felt as if an understanding was formed between us in that quick moment. His tail weaved through the door, and they were both gone from the stoop before my sigh had resolved itself. 

Not all of my worries were assuaged. No, I yet staved off a nasty, wiggling panic in the interest of grace, but I had sudden confidence to sooth others. 

I saw a vision of him keeping guard while she slept, of him dispatching some unseen enemy that rushed for her back, of the pair of them on the road, bound for Windhelm. Of him bringing her back to me.

Whatever else Derkeethus would be for my wife, he would be a loyal companion.


	2. Chapter Two

I took my time in coming to a decision concerning the move to Riften. If I were honest, I’d known that same night that I would follow Amida anywhere, go wherever she chose to lead me. But a part of me sought to test her, to see if she held me in the same regard—especially as Derkeethus became fixed presence in our lives.

She was patient with me. She did not ask again, nor did she make any overt moves towards preparing for such an upheaval, though I did spy a few things here or there sorted into neat piles, ready to be packaged. 

The pair of them had returned and gone away again three times before I felt myself satisfied, and consented. I’d spoken with my friends at the Fishery and made my arrangements in their absence.

Amida hugged me close for happiness. “Oh, thank you my love. You won’t regret it, I promise!” She hopped up immediately to begin pulling things together to leave. I snorted, turning back to my soup.

I heard restless steps overhead, and looked to the top of the stairs. Derkeethus’s feet were there, seeming to hover in uncertainty. I had no aversion to his joining us downstairs, but no great will to invite him down. He’d come when he was hungry enough, I reasoned.

Derkeethus and I were still shy around each other. Our sparse interactions were like children peering at one another around their mothers’ skirts. Amida was the only common ground we shared, and it was treacherous as a dark, unfamiliar swamp. 

A year approaching since we had first been introduced, and still I had no real idea as to the level of intimacy they shared. Amida’s retellings of their adventures focused, as they should, on the _adventures _, rather than quiet nights around the fire, and Derkeethus was not what I would describe as forthcoming. I had learned from him some of his family connections, and had deduced we shared a distant cousin, but everything else I knew from Amida. A miner. A cavern filled with shadows and evil, unseeing monsters that desired their meat.__

__I shuddered at the memory of her telling, and lowered my spoon to my bowl. Derkeethus still stood at the top of the stair when I looked, through one foot was turned, as if he were talking himself out of an appearance._ _

__I faced down the untouched bowl across from me. Steam no longer rose from its contents._ _

__I heaved a bracing sigh. “It’s gone cold,” I called, directing it generally upwards. Let him have his skulking, I supposed. It was no real concession._ _

__The stairs sounded his approach. I did not look up at him, still watching his intended bowl._ _

__“I would mix it back into the pot if I were you.” I said, affecting an uninterested tone. “Nirn root is stringy cold.”_ _

__Derkeethus met this suggestion with a grunt. He took up the bowl and went into the kitchen._ _

__I, showing few teeth in a smile to my own bowl, counted it as a successful interaction._ _

____

***

Amida hired a wagon and bought a horse for the move. She rode ahead of and behind the wagon in turns, and stopped us several times to go off into the bushes, once coming back to beckon Derkeethus. They came back from their side excursions with armloads of dragon bone, bandit plunder and pelts to throw in the back.

“Normally we have to carry everything to the next town,” Amida said to me, seated close, having given the horse over to Derkeethus. “This is much more convenient.” She grinned.

“And profitable,” said Derkeethus, riding passed on her other side. 

“That as well.”

We camped it what appeared to me an old wolves den. It smelled like musty animal, and there were bones from old kills in spots. It’s entrance was hidden, a small break between rocks behind a clump of trees shielding the site of it. The ease by which it was found led me to believe I knew who had cleared it of its previous inhabitants. 

Derkeethus built a fire while Amida set up camp, kicking bones away from where she wanted to lay bedrolls.

I came to a stop near Derkeethus’s small pile of kindling, and looked up. There were a number of openings in the rock, showing star-spotted sky above. Deep, black, Skyrim sky.

“Good for ventilation.” Derkeethus said in a quiet hiss. I nodded. On impulse, I plunged a hand into a thick beam of starlight. Brightness reflected off my scales.

Amida’s joined mine. The light made her skin appear silver. 

She smiled at me, bumped shoulders, and grabbed another bedroll. I moved to help her until one for each of us was laid, circling the fire and equally spaced. 

We settled in, breaking out sausages, chunks of cheese, and a bottle of Nordic ale to pass between us. Lazy conversation followed, Amida leading by example. She and Derkeethus discussed their route, their time, the enemies they expected to face.

“There’s a dragon roosting near the giants’ camp now.” Derkeethus said. He rested on his side, the end of his tail draped on one leg, and had removed pieces of his armor. He looked more comfortable than I’d yet seen him. 

Amida wrinkled her nose. She leaned back on her hands. “With the wagon we can’t depend on fleeing if we needed to.”

“So we stick to the road.” Derkeethus said in his deep voice.

A dragon had flown over Windhelm months before, apparently looking for a roost and having chosen the mountain range at the city’s back. It’s calls could be heard every so often, just enough to remind the population it was a dozen wingbeats away. 

“Have you faced dragons before?” I asked. I looked between the two of them.

“Well—“ Amida hedged.

“Three,” Derkeethus said plainly, at the same time. 

We both looked curiously to Amida. She looked strangely guilty, and evasive.

“Amida?” I said softly, seeking.

She licked her lips, eyes moving from mine to Derkeethus’.

“I’m not quite ready yet,” she said with a shrinking, scared cringe that alarmed me, and stood with a quiet “I’ll take first watch.”

“What was that?” Derkeethus said, a long, silent moment after she’d gone. His narrowed eyes were fixed on the cave’s entrance.

“I don’t know,” I said, not trying to hide how unhappy I was.

I did not know much of Amida’s personal history. Not how she had come to Skyrim, not why she was so distant from her Thalmor brethren, nor for what purpose she wandered. Until now, I had been at peace with my ignorance, and her reticence, if not particularly pleased. 

“Does she talk to you?” I asked, not entirely able to keep the plaintive edge from my voice. 

Derkeethus did me the courtesy of considering his answer before slowly shaking his head.

“No. Not like that.”

***

When her watch was up, Amida woke Derkeethus to take her post and pulled her bedroll next to mine, curling up at my back, avoiding my spine with a care borne of practice. I did not wake as she did this, but with her beside me in the morning at Derkeethus’s nudging. 


End file.
